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A teenage Asian girl with a valid student visa was handcuffed and deported for entering the United States five days earlier than stipulated, highlighting strict American immigration policy.
   A 79-year-old British historian, who came to work at the US Library of Congress on the life of US former chief diplomat Henry Kissinger, was herded on arrival in a wheelchair at Washington’s Dulles airport to a small room facing a superintendent with a revolver in his hip for no apparent mistake.
   Although all his travel papers were in order, ‘I was stopped and treated rather disgracefully,’ lamented Sir Alistair Horne at a conference in Washington Tuesday.
   Stringent enforcement of US visa policy and seemingly overzealous immigration officers following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks are not only scaring away foreign students and tourists but dampening the investment climate of the world’s richest nation and taking a toll on its economy, experts told the conference organised by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
   Among the other cases cited to highlight the economic, security, scientific and diplomatic implications of changes in US visa policy were:
   An international business conference in Hawaii had to be shifted to Hong Kong at the last minute because the organisers could not obtain travel papers for most of its participants, who were from China.
   Some of US aviation giant Lockheed Martin Corporation’s testing of its civil space activities have been delayed because visas could not be obtained on time for Russian scientists.
   A company in northern Illinois waited in vain for seven months for its prospective buyers from China to get a visa to inspect its products and close a multi million dollar sale. Eventually the company became bankrupt and was auctioned off.
   According to one private sector study, US businesses lost nearly 31 billion dollars in sales between 2002 and 2004 because foreign executives could not get into the United States to purchase American goods and services or attend trade shows.
   From 2003 to 2004, there was a roughly 30 per cent decline in the number of applicants for US graduate programmes and correspondingly 20 per cent decline in admissions, university figures showed.
   The situation is critical and requires the personal intervention of the president, George W Bush, former defence secretary, Frank Carlucci, told the conference.
   He said Bush should act to stop further erosion of US popularity overseas.
   ‘It is part and parcel of the anti-Americanism around the world and if the president is serious about addressing that, in that context, he has to address visa policy,’ Carlucci said.
   ‘President Bush can demonstrate leadership and demonstrate that the country is not anti-foreigner and that we are not closing the gates and he can encourage the bureaucracy to make sense out of a patchwork quilt—it is slowly coming together but needs to come together much faster.’
   Lockheed Martin’s corporate international business development vice-president, Richard Kirkland, said ‘what is important is predictability and process’ of getting approval for visas.

Leading global human rights groups urged Nepal’s king Gyanendra to restore civil liberties after he lifted a state of emergency imposed three months ago.
   Gyanendra stunned the world on February 1 when he sacked the government, jailed political leaders and suspended civil liberties, saying the move was needed to quell a bloody Maoist revolt.
   Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists said in a statement late on Tuesday that though the king lifted the emergency at the weekend under international pressure he had not restored political freedom or released all politicians from jails.
   ‘Now that the state of emergency has been lifted, the people of Nepal must be able to exercise their full range of rights,’ said Nicholas Howen, Secretary-General of the ICJ.
   ‘The king has yet to spell out what the lifting of emergency regulations means in terms of the daily exercise of basic rights – is the press free, will those continuing to be held arbitrarily be released, can human rights defenders work without harassment? All of this is still unclear,’ he said.
   Britain will continue supplying development aid to impoverished Nepal but has made no commitment on resuming military help despite king Gyanendra’s lifting of emergency rule, the British embassy said Wednesday.
   Britain and India suspended military aid to the Himalayan kingdom after Gyanendra seized power February 1 and sacked the government for what he said was its failure to deal with a bloody Maoist insurgency.
   Last weekend Gyanendra announced an end to emergency rule.

The US deputy secretary of state, Robert Zoellick, welcomed Wednesday regional efforts to get Myanmar to reform but warned of ‘severe limitations’ on US-ASEAN relations if the military-ruled state chaired the grouping.
   ‘I did express our concern about how it would hinder our dealings with ASEAN if Myanmar were the chair, but I recognise that’s a decision for the ASEAN countries to make,’ Zoellick told reporters in Bangkok using the former name for Myanmar when it was under British rule.
   ‘Myanmar’s role puts severe limitations on what the US can do, so I can’t go beyond that at this point, we’ll see what ASEAN decides to do.’
   Zoellick is on a 10-day trip to Southeast Asia, and met Wednesday with the Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and the foreign minister, Kantathi Suphamongkhon, to discuss Washington’s views about the pace of reforms in Myanmar.
   Parliamentarians in several countries in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations have urged their governments to block Myanmar from assuming the rotating ASEAN chair in 2006 because of Yangon’s lack of democratic reforms.
   Zoellick declined to say if the US would boycott ASEAN meetings were Myanmar to become chair, but Washington in the past has said it might boycott ASEAN meetings in Yangon unless Myanmar adopted political reforms, including the unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
   ‘Now it’s a real question of whether others can continue to try to press the regime to release Aung San Suu Kyi, move towards a serious process of democratic reconciliation,’ Zoellick said Wednesday.
   ‘There are more voices from Southeast Asia now raising concerns about the political situation in Burma than there were in the past. I think that’s a good step.’
   Zoellick also said he would see firsthand Indonesia’s tsunami reconstruction and redevelopment efforts ahead of a crucial US Congress vote on 950 million dollars worth of aid.
   He said he was to shortly travel to devastated Aceh province and also meet with the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhyono.
   While in Vietnam, Zoellick said he wanted to discuss with Vietnamese leaders religious freedom, civil and political rights, and the treatment of Montagnard hill tribes.
   His regional swing also covers Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

A second leading Taiwanese opposition figure heads to China Thursday for what is being billed as a ‘bridge-building’ visit to ease tensions between Beijing and the independence-leaning government in Taipei.
   The trip by People First Party chairman James Soong comes days after Lien Chan, the leader of Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang party, returned from a triumphant and historic visit to mainland China.
   Lien was given a red carpet welcome fit for a head of state in what analysts said was an attempt by Chinese president Hu Jintao’s government to undermine the Taiwan president, Chen Shui-bian, an advocate of independence.
   Soong has also been invited by Hu and he has promised to push a message of reconciliation.
   He described his trip as an attempt to ‘promote understanding and push for reconciliation ... to help remove unnecessary hurdles and misunderstandings.’
   China considers Taiwan part a breakaway province which must be brought back under its rule even though the island has been ruled as a de facto independent state since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
   Meanwhile, a pro-independence party in Taiwan on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against opposition leader Lien Chan, saying he had broken the law by signing an agreement with Beijing during a landmark trip to China.

The Kuwaiti parliament’s blocking of a women’s rights bill and a government decree calling for male-only municipal polls have compounded Kuwaitis’ frustration at the slow pace of reforms and allegations of corruption.
   A bill that would have enabled women to vote and run in the upcoming municipal
   elections failed to get through parliament Monday because of a legal deadlock after Islamist and pro-government tribal MPs abstained from voting.
   A second session on Tuesday failed to break the stalemate after the government requested a two-week delay in the voting. The government then went on to schedule the elections for June 2.
   As a result, women have now to wait until 2009 to possibly take part.
   Another, more important government bill that would grant women the rights to vote and run in parliamentary elections, has so far failed to get off the ground amid reports of plans to postpone it until the next parliamentary term starting late October.
   That bill has still not been discussed by a parliamentary panel although MPs on March 7 agreed that its debate must be speeded up.
   ‘I firmly believe the government is not willing to grant women their political rights. I seriously doubt government intentions. It is only trying to contain external and domestic pressure (for reform),’ former MP Adnan Abdulsamad said.
   ‘We are frustrated because the government is not responding to calls for reform. Though it acknowledges widespread political and economic corruption, it has done nothing to stop it,’ Abdulsamad said.
   ‘Now corruption has become an institution after it was at the individual level in the past ... It interferes in parliamentary elections and applies pressure on decision-makers,’ he said.
   Before the start of the current parliamentary term last October, Kuwaitis pinned great hopes on wide-ranging political reforms in the electoral law and women’s rights, in addition to amendments to the press and assembly laws.
   On the economic front, parliament had been due to
   ratify bills on privatization, income tax, corporate law and public tenders, as well as a proposed multi-billion-dollar investment in the northern oilfields.
   All these bills are prerequisites for fundamental economic reforms to capitalise on the emirate’s abundant cashflow generated by strong oil prices and high output.
   However, none of these reform bills has been debated. Almost all of them must now wait for the next term.
   ‘Frustration has certainly soared now because all the requirements for reform are available, but it appears there is no real will for reform. I don’t believe this government is capable of undertaking these reforms,’ Islamist MP Nasser al-Sane said.
   Kuwait has enjoyed highly positive economic indicators in recent years, boasting surpluses for six consecutive years totalling more than 30 billion dollars.
   In the 2004/2005 fiscal year, which ended in March, the emirate posted a record revenue of about 30 billion dollars and a surplus of 10 billion
   dollars.
   These encouraging financial results, coupled with optimism since the April 2003 overthrow of former Iraqi leader and one-time Kuwait occupier Saddam Hussein, are seen as a suitable ground for economic development.
   But this was overshadowed by political squabbling and allegations of corruption.
   ‘This government is accused of corruption in several fields ... It stinks in many government departments ... Unfortunately, corruption is rife and has sponsors,’ Sane said.
   Abdulsamad put part of the blame on parliament.
   ‘The government interfered in the (2003) elections ... As a result, it has managed to control parliament and here lies the real problem,’ he said.
   ‘The government has 16 ministers who can vote (as ex-officio members of parliament). The government also has influence on a large number of MPs, so if it was really interested in reforms, it would have used this majority,’ Sane said.

With an Israeli-Palestinian truce growing shakier by the day, the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, criticised Israel for pressuring him to confront militants and accused it of looking to spill Palestinian blood.
   In a meeting with business people, academics and public officials on Tuesday, Abbas also promised a referendum on any final peace deal, and said Palestinians ‘would not accept anything less’ than Israel’s return to the borders it held before the 1967 Mideast war, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
   Abbas held out hope for the dismantling of large Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank, saying there is a precedent for settlement removal.
   He has come under stiff pressure from Israel to curb Palestinian militants, but although his rhetoric has become fiercer recently, he is reluctant to go head-to-head with them for fear of provoking bloodshed.
   In Gaza on Tuesday, his police freed a Hamas militant who was seized with weapons and a rocket launcher in his car just minutes after militants fired rockets from Gaza at Israel in violation of the February 8 truce. Palestinian officials said the suspect was released under pressure from Hamas and Egypt, which helped mediate the truce.

Japan is expected to give up its bid to build a revolutionary nuclear reactor and it is ‘highly likely’ the multi-billion dollar project will go to Cadarache in France, a newspaper said Wednesday.
   Citing government sources, Japan’s top-selling daily Yomiuri Shimbun said Tokyo had entered negotiations with concerned parties with a view to ‘giving up its bid to build the nuclear reactor in Rokkasho-mura,’ a northern village near the Pacific Ocean.
   The decision followed recent unofficial talks with the European Union, which supports France’s bid for building the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, the Yomiuri said.
   ‘As a result, it is now highly likely that the reactor will be built in Cadarache, France, rather than at Japan’s proposed site in Rokkasho-mura, Aomori prefecture,’ the Yomiuri said.
   But a senior official at Japan’s ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology dismissed the report, saying Tokyo would continue its campaign to bring the ITER project to Rokkasho-mura.

A firefight in south-eastern Afghanistan left about 20 suspected Taliban rebels and one Afghan police officer dead while six US servicemen and five Afghan police were injured, the US military said Wednesday.
   The fighting involving US warplanes and helicopters as well as ground troops erupted on Tuesday in Deh Chopan, a troubled district in Zabul province, the military said in a statement.
   A village leader with suspected links to the Taliban and six other attackers were detained by US forces, the statement added. One insurgent was also wounded during the battle, it said.
   The firefight was one of the biggest since militants from the Islamic regime, which was ousted by a US-led coalition in late 2001, began a renewed offensive coinciding with the end of winter in Afghanistan.

Sri Lanka’s president vowed to reach a deal with Tamil rebels on the distribution of aid after the December tsunamis despite the risk it could see her shaky coalition collapse, state-run media said Wednesday.
   The government led by the president, Chandrika Kumara-tunga, needs an agreement to distribute foreign aid to rebel-held areas, some of which suffered huge damage in the disaster that killed nearly 31,000 people here.
   Foreign donors do not want to direct funds to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam because the group has been listed as a terrorist organisation in many countries, despite entering a peace process with the government in 2002.
   Kumaratunga told religious leaders she would press ahead with plans to forge a ‘joint mechanism’ with the rebels to handle the aid, despite risks to her coalition, the state-run Daily News reported.

Iran vowed on Tuesday to press ahead with nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons and accused the United States and Israel of threatening international peace with their own atomic arsenals.
   ‘Iran is determined to pursue all legal areas of nuclear technology including (uranium) enrichment, exclusively for peaceful purposes,’ the foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, said a conference to review the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
   He said it was wrong to limit ‘access to peaceful nuclear technology to an exclusive club of technologically advanced states under the pretext of non-proliferation.’
   In Washington, the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said Iran could not have access to dangerous nuclear technology and reiterated that the issue may be referred to the UN Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions.
   ‘They can’t have access to certain kinds of technology that can, that have–proliferation risk,’ Rice said.
   Iran criticised the United States, which accuses Tehran of using its nuclear programme as a front for developing arms, for not scrapping its own arsenal as required by the treaty.
   ‘Unilateral nuclear disarmament measures should be pursued vigorously,’ Kharrazi
   said. It was also ‘abhorrent that ... the dangerous doctrine of the use of nuclear weapons
   against non-nuclear states and threats was officially proclaimed by the United States and NATO.’
   Without naming it, China’s chief delegate, Zhang Yan, also criticised the United States for adding ‘destabilising factors’ to the global security situation.
   He said those included ‘sticking to the Cold War mentality, pursuing unilateralism, advocating pre-emptive strategy, listing other countries as targets of nuclear strike and lowering the threshold of using nuclear weapons, research and developing new types of nuclear weapons.’
   Rising tensions about Iran as well as North Korea, which has said it has nuclear arms, dominated the opening of a month long UN-sponsored conference on the NPT, the cornerstone of atomic disarmament pacts.
   The United States on Monday pressed the 188 attending nations to ensure Tehran and Pyongyang were denied peaceful nuclear energy benefits because they had violated the treaty.
   Kharrazi also singled out Iran’s other enemy, Israel, whose assumed nuclear arsenal he said ‘has endangered regional and global peace and security.’
   ‘Israel has continuously rejected the calls by the international community–to accede to the NPT,’ he said.

On the eve of an election likely to give him an historic third term, Tony Blair appealed to voters on Wednesday to swallow misgivings over Iraq and return him to power as a reward for Britain’s healthy economy.
   ‘Of course there has been disagreement about Iraq,’ the prime minister said as the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein again dominated a news conference, his last of the campaign.
   ‘(But) who do people trust with the economy, with the investment in our public services, with the interests of the country?’ he asked. ‘I think we can make a pretty good case of it ... Those are the issues that really motivate people.’
   Blair—whom polls show is well ahead of the main opposition Conservatives—was like other party leaders engaged in a frenetic last day of interviews and campaign stops around the country before polls open at 7:00am (0600 GMT) on Thursday.
   Blair is hoping Britain’s robust economy, which has outperformed its European neighbours during the global downturn of recent years, will be his trump card.
   But British voters, including many in his own centre-left Labour Party, remain deeply uncomfortable with Blair’s backing of the US-led invasion.
   ‘It is not telling the truth that makes politics seem negative, that makes people think all politicians do not tell the truth,’ said Conservative leader Michael Howard, again accusing Blair of lying over the legality of the war.
   Charles Kennedy, leader of Britain’s third party the Liberal Democrats, added: ‘Cast your vote to restore Britain’s reputation on the international stage. Vote Liberal Democrat if, like us, you say ‘never again’ to an episode like Iraq.’

The train travels west into the outskirts of London, and arrives at the heart of south Asian Britain: English and Punjabi signs, curry restaurants, Muslim butchers, a Hindu temple, a gold-domed Sikh gurdwara and churches.
   The thriving London neighbourhood of Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims from Pakistan and India, in addition to dozens of other immigrant nationalities, illustrates the governing Labour Party’s waning support among ethnic minorities.
   Labour incumbent Piara Khabra is likely to beat Conservative Mark Nicholson and Liberal Democrat Nigel Bakhai to hold onto the seat for Ealing-Southall, but with a smaller majority than he had in the last two elections in 2001 and 1997, analysts within the South Asian community say.
   However, the anticipated result is less a ringing endorsement for Prime Minister Tony Blair than a reflection of the lack of real alternatives.

The US military’s operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have constrained its ability to tackle other potential conflicts, making any future war more likely to be longer and bloodier, according to America’s top general.
   In an annual classified report required by Congress, the air force general, Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said stress on manpower and equipment could limit the ability to win other possible wars as quickly as the Pentagon had previously forecast, defence officials said on Tuesday.
    Myers stated in the report that US armed forces would ‘succeed’ in any future major conflict but ‘may be unable to meet expectations for speed or precision.’
   Any future armed conflicts ‘may result in significantly extended campaign timelines, and achieving campaign objectives may result in higher casualties and collateral damage,’ the report stated.
   Potential hot spots include Iran, the Korean Peninsula and across the Taiwan Strait.
   Myers, due to step down from his post in September, said the report showed ‘we have very high standards in how we measure ourselves.’

If you can leave home and raise children, should you have a vote?
   Campaigners have demanded a pre-election pledge from the three main parties to lower the voting age to 16 by the next general election.
   The coalition, including the National Union of Students and the Electoral Reform Society, said it would ‘invigorate’ the youth vote.
   Campaigner Joseph Ammoun, 16, said: ‘Young people know what they think about issues.’

28 dead in rain-hit Andhra Pradesh
At least 28 people have been killed and scores injured in torrential rains in the past four days in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, a government official said Wednesday. The region has suffered severe storms since Saturday, bringing hail, rain and high winds that damaged homes and crops, uprooted thousands of trees and telephone poles and killed 400 livestock in at least six districts, the official said. At least 11 people died in the coastal district of Guntur alone after being struck by lightning on Saturday.
— AFP

ROK minister quits over 1980
crackdown
South Korea’s vice defence minister Yoo Hyo-Il has stepped down because of controversy over his alleged role in the bloody crackdown on a 1980 pro-democracy uprising, officials said Wednesday. A spokesman of the defence ministry said Yoo informed the presidential Blue House on Tuesday of his decision through Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-Woong. ‘The vice defence minister said he hoped that his resignation will help facilitate the investigation into the past incidents involving the military and restore the people’s trust in the armed forces,’ he said. An aide to the president Roh Moo-Hyun, said the president would accept Yoo’s resignation and appoint his successor next week.
— AFP

Japan to withdraw 550 troops: report
Japan will withdraw its 550 soldiers from their non-combat mission in Iraq in December, according to a media report Wednesday. Tokyo will notify other countries participating in the peacekeeping mission in Iraq as early as September and then shift its contribution to financial assistance, Kyodo News agency said, quoting sources it did not identify. Several American allies — including Ukraine, the Netherlands and Spain — have started pulling their troops from Iraq, and Poland has said it will withdraw its soldiers by year’s end unless the UN Security Council renewed their mandate.
— AP

Two quakes hit Indonesia
Two moderate earthquakes rocked Indonesia on Wednesday but there were no reports of casualties or damage, meteorologists said. An undersea quake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of Sumatra island at 7:42am (0042 GMT), said an official at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. Another tremor with a magnitude of 4.2 occurred at 12.58pm in the Indian Ocean, with the epicentre 158 kilometres west of Meulaboh, a coastal town in the west Sumatran province of Aceh. Aceh was hardest-hit by the December tsunami that spread across the Indian Ocean, killing 128,000 people in Indonesia alone. The wave was triggered by a 9.3-magnitude earthquake. The region sits on the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire noted for its volcanic and seismic activity and has been rattled by daily aftershocks since the December disaster.
— AFP

Italy criticises US over agent’s death
Italy has published a report over the death of one of its secret service agents in Iraq, criticising the US military for failing to establish rules for checkpoints in Iraq. The report, published on Monday evening, blamed nervous US troops manning a haphazard roadblock for killing Nicola Calipari near Baghdad. Italy also condemned the US for trying to cover-up the truth. Italian newspapers and websites carried the report on their front pages on Tuesday. Italians then expressed even stronger criticisms of the United States, and of the way it handled the incident. An Italy resident said: ‘The Americans covered-up the truth, and they are still doing so. The truth is that whatever happens, the Americans will turn it to their benefit.
— AFP

Chirac urges voters not to reject EU constitution
The French president, Jacques Chirac, has made a televised appeal to sceptical voters not to reject the EU constitution in a referendum on 29 May. Rather than promoting a neo-liberal economic framework, as some voters fear, the constitution would enshrine French values, Chirac insisted. Neither left or right, the constitution would be what EU states made of it, but could only boost French power, he said. He spoke as two polls suggested the Yes campaign was finally gaining ground. However, two other polls still put the No vote ahead. Responding to questions from two French journalists, Chirac denied that the EU constitution would destroy the French social model and replace it with an Anglo-Saxon style economy.
— Retuers

Schroeder stresses non-Muslim freedoms
The German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, on Wednesday urged Turkey to fully implement the democracy reforms it adopted to achieve European Union norms and called for more freedoms for Christian communities in this Muslim-majority country. Schroeder, a staunch supporter of Turkey’s EU membership bid, assured Ankara that the bloc was determined to open accession talks with Turkey on schedule on October 3. ‘The dynamics of reform should continue,’ Schroeder told reporters after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
— Reuters

US won’t intervene in Venezuela: Rumsfeld
The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said Tuesday that the United States would not intervene to remove the government of The president, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and suggested to an audience it could eventually lose power on its own. Rumsfeld’s frank comments during a question-and-answer session at the Council of the Americas came in response to an audience member’s assertion that Venezuelans appeared incapable of removing the Chavez government themselves and that the United States would have to step in ‘to bring some sanity there.’ ‘You indicated you don’t think anything can happen unless the United States does something,’ Rumsfeld replied. ‘I don’t know that I agree with that.’
— AFP

Kenyan prison inmates in beauty contest
With their eye-catching outfits, sparkling make-up and bright smiles, one could hardly believe the women striding along the catwalk in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, were prisoners. Miss Langata is looking forward to doing a beauty course. They each received a round of applause as they walked past the judges in Kenya’s largest women’s prison, Langata. The master of ceremonies at the Miss Langata contest was former Kenya Polytechnic College lecturer Judy Akinyi, who is serving a nine-year jail term for trafficking heroin. Thirty inmates entered the preliminary round, with 12 qualifying for the finals.
— BBC